State Heritage Register: Examples of submissions about Powerhouse Museum nomination, 2020

24 March, 2020
State Heritage Register: Examples of submissions to review Powerhouse Museum nomination
On 26 February 2020, the NSW Heritage Council advertised a notice of intention to consider listing the ‘Ultimo Tramways Power House’ on the State Heritage Register.
In 2016 the National Trust of Australia (NSW) had submitted a nomination for listing the Ultimo Power House on the State Heritage Register. This was ignored until 2019, when Heritage NSW, Department of Premier and Cabinet, contracted architects Cracknell & Lonergan to provide ‘an independent assessment of the proposed State Listing of the structures at the Ultimo Powerhouse site encompassing the Powerhouse Museum components submitted by the National Trust’. Their January 2020 report was the basis for a new State Heritage Register nomination. For Report and Nomination: Read more .
However, it considered only the original brick shell of the former Ultimo Power House, not the overall award-winning Powerhouse Museum that opened in 1988. That is, it had numerous omissions and errors, with a curtilage plan that specifically excluded both the 1988 Wran building and the adjacent former tram depot, the Harwood building, while the letter advising groups of the nomination did not disclose that Cracknell & Lonergan had concluded in their Assessment that the site did not warrant state heritage listing.

Following an invitation for public submissions (due 24 March, 2020) many concerns were expressed about the inadequacies of the nomination, in relation to the extensive heritage significance of the entire Museum. See PMA news chronology, 25 February, and following critical comments on 1 March.

Submissions to review the nomination:
The submissions below are examples of some of those submitted by well-informed museum professionals seeking review of the limited extent of the nomination (and more are to come…)

Andrew Grant: Submission – Andrew Grant

Anne-Marie VandeVen: Submission – Anne-Marie Van de Ven

Christina Sumner: Submission – Christina Sumner

Debbie Rudder: Submission – Debbie Rudder

Grace Cochrane: Submission – Grace Cochrane

Graham Quint: Submission – National Trust

Ian Debenham: Submission – Ian Debenham

Jennifer Sanders: Submission – Jennifer Sanders

John Petersen: Submission – John Petersen

John Wade: Submission – John Wade

Kerrie Dougherty: Submission – Kerrie Dougherty

Kylie Winkworth: Submission – Kylie Winkworth